1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to power semiconductor modules.
2. Description of the Related Art
In known power semiconductor modules, generally power semiconductor components, such as power semiconductor switches and diodes, are arranged on a substrate and electrically conductively connected to one another by a conductor layer of the substrate, bonding wires and/or a foil composite. In such devices, the power semiconductor switches are generally transistors, such as IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) or MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor), or in the form of thyristors.
In such devices, the power semiconductor components are often electrically interconnected to form one or more so-called half-bridge circuits, which are usually used for rectifying and inverting electrical voltages and currents. The substrate is also generally connected to a heat sink, either directly or indirectly.
German Patent No. DE 103 55 925 A1 (also published as U.S. Pat. No. 7,042,074) discloses a power semiconductor module in which power semiconductor components are electrically connected to one another by a foil composite.
In this device, the electrical load-current-carrying connections between the power semiconductor components among one another and between the power semiconductor components and load current connection elements of the power semiconductor module have parasitic inductances which can lead to overvoltages at the power semiconductor components during the operation of the power semiconductor module. A particularly low-inductance construction of the power semiconductor module is desirable in order to minimize the overvoltages.